The U.S. government is refusing to identify the bomber who six months ago perpetrated a deadly Islamic State suicide bombing at the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, despite numerous reports of anonymous officials naming the attacker as Abdul Rehman al Logari.
The attacker’s alleged identity is something of an open secret in national security circles and on Capitol Hill, but the Biden administration has refused to openly confirm that Logari, who had been freed from a prison at Bagram Air Base in August of last year when the Taliban took it over, was indeed the bomber who killed and wounded 58 U.S. troops. The Aug. 26 attack killed 13 U.S. service members and nearly 200 Afghans while wounding dozens more as the United States led evacuation operations at the airport with the Taliban providing security outside.
When asked about Logari’s identity, a CIA spokesperson referred the Washington Examiner to the Pentagon. A Pentagon public affairs officer, Army Maj. Rob Lodewick, told the Washington Examiner that “DoD has not confirmed this. I’d have to refer you to the FBI’s investigation on the matter.” A spokesperson for the State Department also referred the Washington Examiner to the FBI. But an FBI spokesperson said the bureau “has no comment.”
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the Justice Department, the National Security Council, and the White House did not provide comment.
After this article was published, a senior defense official told the Washington Examiner, “Due to sensitivities surrounding ongoing counterterrorism operations, we are unable to confirm the identity of the August 26, 2021 suicide bomber responsible for the attack on Abbey Gate.”
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Army Brig. Gen. Lance Curtis was named the Pentagon’s lead investigator to look into the bombing back in September 2021, with the Defense Department releasing conclusions in early February. When asked this month whether it was true the identity of the bomber was known in advance of the attack, he deflected: “There is a separate investigation that is being conducted by the FBI that is taking a look at that. That’s outside the scope of our investigation.”
Some congressional Republicans are speaking up about the Biden administration’s silence.
“It’s been six months since 13 U.S. service members lost their lives during the President’s botched withdrawal from Afghanistan,” Rep. Mike Gallagher, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, told the Washington Examiner. “We know the bomber had been imprisoned at Bagram, but that is not enough. The families of these brave men and women, and the American people, deserve to know the identity of who conducted this bombing.”
Rep. Ken Calvert, a member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, told the Washington Examiner: “I believe that not only has the Biden administration identified the bomber, they did so relatively soon after the attack. There’s simply no legitimate excuse for the administration’s silence on this matter and failure to share this information with the American public and the families of the fallen service members.”
ISIS-K, the local affiliate of ISIS in Afghanistan, claimed credit for the attack and named Logari within hours.
Logari is said to have been previously held at Parwan Detention Facility, next to Bagram, but he was released by the Taliban when it took over Afghanistan in mid-August amid a disastrous U.S. withdrawal. The Taliban, the Haqqani network, and al Qaeda are deeply intertwined in Afghanistan.
Calvert said in September that “U.S. national security officials have now confirmed to me the reports that the August 26th Kabul bomber was a known ISIS-K terrorist that was previously detained at the Bagram prison and was released along with thousands of others just days before the deadly attack.” The U.S. military abandoned Bagram in July.
“American officials” said Logari was a former engineering student who had been recruited by ISIS-K years prior, the New York Times reported in January. The CIA warned Indian intelligence in 2017 that Logari was planning an attack in New Delhi, with India’s foreign intelligence service capturing him and handing him over to the CIA in September 2017, the outlet reported, adding that “American officials” said Logari spent time at both Pul-e-Charki prison and Parwan prison before being freed. CNN also indicated officials knew Logari’s identity, reporting in October that “two U.S. officials” confirmed that the ISIS-K bomber had been sprung from Parwan prison and confirmed it was Logari.
Logari’s identity is even an open secret internationally, with the India-based First Post reporting back in September that “senior Indian intelligence sources familiar with the case” provided similar details about Logari.
The State Department’s Rewards for Justice program in February offered a $10 million reward for information leading to the location of ISIS-K leader Sanaullah Ghafari and another $10 million for information leading to the arrest of “terrorists responsible for the attack” at Kabul’s airport. The State Department didn’t say whether the lack of a public identification of the bomber would hinder the quest to find those responsible for facilitating the attack.
When the State Department announced the reward in early February after the Pentagon investigation concluded, it stated that “a suicide bomber and gunmen attacked the airport.” The website now states that “a suicide bomber attacked the airport” and makes no mention of gunmen.
Marine Corps Gen. Frank McKenzie, the commander of U.S. Central Command, said the investigation found no definitive proof that anyone was ever hit by gunfire despite immediate reports of gunmen.
“At the time, the best information we had at the time indicated that it was a complex attack by both a suicide bomber and ISIS-K gunmen,” McKenzie said. “We now know that the explosively fired ball bearings cause wounds that look like gunshots, and when combined with a small number of warning shots, that led many to assume that a complex attack had occurred.”
“It was a single blast, and it did not have a follow attack,” Curtis told reporters. “There were a series of crossing fires to the front of the service members on the ground that created the illusion that there was a complex attack, but there absolutely was not. There were no gunshot wounds.”
Curtis also claimed that “we don’t have any evidence through the course of our investigation that leads us to believe that the Taliban knew about this attack.” And Marine Col. C.J. Douglas contended that “very quickly, Marines determined the Taliban were neither involved nor threatening U.S. personnel.”
Early this month, Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla, the nominee to be the next commander of CENTCOM, warned during his confirmation hearing that al Qaeda and ISIS-K are “reconstituting” in Afghanistan. Both terror groups are expected to have the capability to launch attacks internationally as soon as this spring. The U.S. estimates ISIS-K to have between 3,000 to 5,000 fighters, Christopher Landberg, the acting principal deputy coordinator for the State Department’s bureau of counterterrorism, said in early February, and a report from the United Nations in January assessed that ISIS-K’s strength “has increased from earlier estimates of 2,200 fighters to now approaching 4,000 following the release by the Taliban of several thousand individuals from prison.”
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The report stressed that while ISIS “controls limited territory in eastern Afghanistan, it is capable of conducting high-profile, complex attack such as the … bombing at Kabul airport.”
“We deserve answers and accountability for questions like why thousands of prisoners at Bagram, including scores of violent terrorists, were left in place to be released by the Taliban, and where are these individuals today?” Calvert told the Washington Examiner. “We also need to know who assisted the bomber and what is being done to prosecute them. Finally, we need answers and accountability for the decisions that led to the disaster at Kabul airport and the chaos that allowed the bomber to kill 13 brave Americans. We know how they died. I want to know why!”
